Azernews.Az

Four Azerbaijani karatekas reached the semifinals within the first European Games in Baku.

Thus, Firdovsi Farzaliyev (category of up to 60 kg), Niyazi Aliyev (67 kg), Rafael Agayev (75 kg) and Ilaha Gasimova (55 kg), representing Azerbaijan will hold matches in the second half of the day with Emil Pavlov (Macedonia), Burak Uygur (Turkey), Noah Bitsch (Germany) and Emily Thouy (France), respectively.

Firdovsi Farzaliyev gained victory over Spanish karateka Matías García Gómez with the score of 2:0 in the first encounter. Then he defeated Italian karateka Luca Maresca with the score of 4:2 and Albanian karateka Halil Marqeshi with the score of 6:0.

Niyazi Aliyev gained victory over Georgian Irakli Tkebuchava with the score of 2:0, and then prevailed over French Steven Da Costa with a score of 3:1. Aliyev also defeated Spanish Manuel Rasero Ruiz with a score of 2:0.

In his turn, Rafael Aghayev gained victory over Ukrainian Illya Nikulin with a score 3:0, and then over Latvian Ruslan Sadikovs with a score of 3:1. Aghayev was defeated by Turkish Erman Eltemur, 3:5.

Ilaha Gasimova in the first match defeated karateka from Luxembourg, Jennifer Warling with a score of 4:0 and also came out victorious against Turkish Tuba Yakan with a score of 1:0. Gasimova however lost to Croatian Jelena Kovacevic with a score of 0:1.

Baku 2015 is the first ever European Games, an exciting and innovative multi-sport event for the continent which kicked off on June 12.

There is a total of 20 sports at Baku 2015: 16 Olympic sports and four non-Olympic sports. More than 6,000 athletes from across Europe will be representing their nations over 17 days of competition.

The First European Games will last till June 28.Baku was awarded the games by the European Olympic Committees in December 2012.

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